The present embodiments relate to multidisciplinary engineering systems. For example, creating templates in a multidisciplinary system is described.
A multidisciplinary engineering system is a system that integrates multiple engineering disciplines, such as design engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, automation engineering, project management and the like, and allows engineers, technicians and managers from various disciplines to work on common or connected data. For example, factory designers can work together with mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, automation engineers and managers to plan a new production line for a car door assembly. In a multidisciplinary engineering system, each discipline has its own representation of data. For example, the same device will be represented differently in each discipline, and different data regarding the device is stored depending on the discipline.
Engineering templates are used in engineering applications. Engineering templates allow users to group engineering objects together to form a template, and work from a higher data standpoint. Engineering templates are used for each of the respective disciplines. For example, in an automation design application, a mechanical engineer is able to group two sensors and a motor to create a template representing the conveyor, and an electrical engineer uses a different template for the same grouping but of different information.
Each engineering discipline works separately from a data point of view. Therefore, manual synchronization of the discipline specific data is required, which is very time consuming and error prone. For example, when an automation engineer introduces a new programmable logic controller (PLC) to automate a production line, information about the PLC is manually transported to an electrical engineering application in order for an electrical engineer to specify an appropriate electrical cabinet to house the PLC and to plan wiring to the PLC. If the PLC information is not transported, or the PLC information is distorted during transport, the missing or incorrect information can impact the quality of the work of both the automation and electrical engineers.